Allentown Attorney To Face Court On Arson Charges * But The Defense Says That The Lawyer Had No Motive To Burn His Rented Home In July.

April 30, 1997|by DAN HARTZELL, The Morning Call

Attorney Anthony C. Bruneio Jr. will face trial in Lehigh County on charges that he set fire to his rented Allentown home in July, despite defense arguments that he had no motive and that prosecutors had proved nothing.

District Justice Richard Gatti of Allentown made his ruling after a 90-minute preliminary hearing Tuesday that included confusion over the meaning of "sustained" versus "overruled."

Prosecutors allege that Bruneio, who has served as a public defender in Lehigh and Northampton counties, set a fire in a laundry basket on the second floor of his rented row home at 1219 Tilghman St. just after 10 a.m. July 20, then left the house.

No one was injured in the house fire that day, but an 81-year-old woman was taken from next door by a neighbor to protect her, and Bruneio's house had $51,000 in damage.

Randy W. Snyder testified Monday that he smelled smoke from his house across the street about 10:10 a.m. July 20, shortly after noticing Bruneio leaving.

Snyder said he saw smoke coming from a second-floor window of Bruneio's house a few minutes later. He ran to the house, banging on the door and yelling, and eventually broke the door in to check for people or pets inside. He found no one, but said he saw an open bottle of vodka on the kitchen table.

Defense counsel James L. Heidecker Jr. questioned Snyder repeatedly on the precise time of the events. Snyder eventually agreed he could not be absolutely certain it was exactly 10:10 a.m. when he saw Bruneio leaving.

Heidecker questioned the qualifications of city fire Capt. Butch W. Nonnemacher, who had ruled the blaze an arson. Gatti rejected Heidecker's objection to Nonnemacher testifying by saying the objection was "sustained."

When Deputy District Attorney Mark D. Greenwald tried to convince the judge to change his mind, Gatti said he had ruled in Greenwald's favor. This perplexed both Heidecker and Greenwald, but Gatti's ruling stood: in effect, he overruled the defense objection by saying "sustained."

The scenario was repeated during a subsequent objection, and Gatti reiterated after the hearing that "sustained" meant Heidecker's objections were "out" or rejected. Asked about the incident after the hearing, Heidecker and Greenwald later acknowledged that the judge's use of "sustained" during the hearing was unusual. "To say the least," one of them added.

Thus cleared to testify, Nonnemacher said the fire was "pretty well knocked down" by the time he arrived on the scene at 10:26 a.m. that day, with only some "hot spots" remaining.

He determined that the fire started in a plastic wash basket in a doorway between two second-floor bedrooms. He could not say exactly how it was started, but that he ruled out an accidental cause because an electrical cord seen as the only possible "ignition source" was burned from the outside, rather than from inside as is characteristic of a short-circuit.

Nonnemacher said the wash basket appeared to be the only point of origin of the fire, and that he found no evidence that an accelerant was used to start it.

Greenwald reminded Nonnemacher of the vodka, prompting Heidecker's second objection and leading to Gatti sustaining that one as well -- meaning Nonnemacher could proceed. He said it's possible that vodka could be used as an accelerant, but repeated that he found no evidence of it where the fire started.

Heidecker asked Gatti to throw out all the charges: three counts of arson, risking a catastrophe and criminal mischief. Bruneio had no reason to set the fire; he had no insurance on the contents of the rented property, Heidecker argued. And a single point or origin with no accelerant suggest an accidental fire, he said.

Greenwald said the county does not have to show a motive; that no one else was seen in or around the property at the time of the fire, and that the city had ruled it an arson.

In charging Bruneio with arson in January, District Attorney Robert L. Steinberg said the lawyer had "personal problems" but declined to comment on a possible motive. Greenwald said Monday that the motive issue will be dealt with at trial.

Bruneio remains free on $25,000 bail. If convicted, he could be disbarred.